• Published 6th Apr 2014
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Fallout Equestria: Influx - Lex the Pikachu



A mare wakes up to discover she is in the Wasteland and not who she used to be. Determined to discover the truth she heads out into the wasteland. But the truth can be disturbing.

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Chapter 9: A New Perspective

(Author notes: Minor missing words added and dialogue in dream and electronic voice sections put into italics as well as new bonus pictures added)

Fallout Equestria: Influx

Chapter 9: A New Perspective


We stepped onto the makeshift platform of what used to be the Las Pegasus Train Depot, which was now being used as the New Pegasus Train Station. I sighed with disappointed at a wasted journey as I sat down on the wooden platform, the boards creaked under my weight. I couldn’t believe we went all the way out here just to find out we had to go all the way back to where we started. It was frustrating to have gone through everything we had for nothing.

“Shouldn’t there be a pony here to help passengers?” Fruity asked as he used his wings to position his Q-Modulator between his wings to sit squarely on his back.

“Usually I’m on the train when it’s in motion rather being the station master, plus the station isn’t open…what are you doing... don’t I know you?” A recognisable voice said to our right.

“Marshal?” I asked as I turned to look at the stallion that had gifted me his revolver as he stepped out from behind a concrete pillar.

The slate coloured stallion tilted his head as he looked at me. I quickly took my stetson off and his eyes widened in surprise and recognition. “Well I’ll be damned, Crystal Éclair, you’re alive!” He then looked to Fruity who had also taken his steston off as well. “Ah yes, you’re Fruity, thought you looked familiar as well.”

“Good to see that you survived the explosion of the train too,” Fruity said with a nod.

“Thank you and what are two doing here? The station is closed.” He asked as he approached us.

“A member of the Queens directed us here and the gate was open so we came in. We wanted to find out when the train will be ready to go again,” I said, standing back up.

“Ah, the train...” He said, trailing off as he looked over the train yard. We followed his gaze to a train of Pullmare cars that we all recognised as the train we rode here on. “The track is cleared and repaired and the train cars have been recovered, but the bosses of the Trans-Equestrian Railway don’t want a repeat of what happened to that streamlined locomotive, so they’re doing extra safety checks with the “Dashing Pegasus” to make sure the locomotive will be perfectly operational before they put it back into service,” Marshal Slate explained.

“So the train won’t be ready for a while yet?” Fruity deadpanned.

The marshal shook his head. “I’m afraid not. The “Dashing Pegasus” is being tested very thoroughly; it’s more of a priceless icon to Equestrian and Braytish Imperial history than the other one, so they don’t want to lose it to a valve malfunction.”

“So, how long are we looking at here?” I asked with a sigh.

“The tests are scheduled to continue for the next couple of days before normal train service is resumed,”

Great, we had to waste our time for a couple of days while we wait for the engineers to be satisfied with the train. I grumbled with annoyance. I was then shocked out of my foul mood by a loud steam whistle. Looking over to the engine sheds we saw a cloud of steam flowing out of one of the open engine bays.

Out of the cloud of steam came a large, if somewhat grimy, cyan blue coloured steam locomotive that was similar in appearance to the streamlined one from before, but wasn’t streamlined into the shape of a wing at the front. It had the same wheel configuration and eight wheel corridor tender but that was where its visual similarities ended. It had exposed wheels, letting us see the three drive wheels on the side we could see all its intricate drive and valve gear linking up to them. The cylinder sat just in front of the first drive wheel. Above the drive wheels was a hoofplate that the large boiler sat on. The first few feet of the boiler were actually the smoke box and were coloured black and had a pipe that went down into the cylinder. Where the smoke box ended, the boiler started, it was perfect cylindrical in shape for about half the length before it tapered out, rising up a little before tapering back down slightly before it joined with the cab. Above each drive wheel was a small wheel arch and above the middle arch was a nameplate that followed the slight curve and on that plate was the name of the locomotive, the “Dashing Pegasus”.

“Whoa,” Fruity said as we watched the large iron horse (I remember my father calling steam engines Iron Horses) puff its way out of its shed and into the bright Marejave sun.

We watched for a while as the large steam engine puffed up the track. As it moved, a memory came to the surface of my mind as I recognised that engine.

It was a mild morning in the Marejave as my parents and I waited on the platform for our train. I was around seven years old at the time and we were waiting for the train to take us to the Crystal Empire for our Hearth’s Warming Holiday as we usually spent the holidays at my grandparents. Today was also special as a brand new passenger locomotive had been put into service under the Equestrian Railway. Apparently, it was a joined effort with Braytish and Equestrian engineers and they created a new class of passenger locomotive that could haul large trains at high speeds which would be great for passenger services. The one that was to pull our train was named the “Dashing Pegasus”.

I remember the station platform being incredibly crowded that morning, many ponies waiting for the train but also lots of reporters trying to get a scoop on the new locomotive. I felt slightly intimidated by such a crowd, never having been around so many ponies before in my life. I had hugged close to my mother’s pink legs when I was scared out of my skin by an incredibly loud whistle. It was at that moment that a giant blue monster ground past us. My first encounter with the locomotive was scary as the engine was massive, easily twice the size of the previous steam engine and when it arrived, it was squealing loudly as it had its breaks on as it ground to a halt. There was then a commotion as the reporters went into a frenzy fighting over each other for the best photo of the new locomotive while passengers disembarked and new passengers tried to board. It was chaos worthy of the chaos master himself. It was as we were boarding that we looked down the length of the train and noticed just how long it was. The rest of the train extended out of the train terminal and around the curve that was outside. The previous locomotive that took us to the Empire was a four to five car train; this one was ten or more car train. No wonder ponies were flipping out over this new engine.

“-days and everything should be good to go.” I heard Slate say. I blinked in confusion as I missed the start of his statement due to my memory.

“Sure no probs,” Fruity said as he nudged me. “C’mon, we better go,”

“Err, right, um, see you soon Mr Slate,” I called to the stallion as I followed Fruity off the premises.

XXXXX

“What should we do now?” Fruity asked as we walked back through the gate into Hayside as the sun began its downward ark in the sky to begin the sunset.

“You know, since I woke up after learning what I now am... I don’t know.” I replied at a loss. That brought a depressing thought to mind. After learning the truth about what happened to me, what was I to do with my life? How am I supposed to live in a world of death and misery as well as living as a bio-mechanoid?

While I was distracted by my thoughts, a dirty earth pony dressed in what used to pass as a factory jumpsuit with an eye-patch over one eye jumped out of an alley. The stallion twitched every so often, and his remaining eye was wide and unfocused. He looked like a bum, a common drug addict which sadly seemed to be a common sight in certain areas of Hayside apparently.

“Give me all your caps,” The dirty stallion demanded in a forced harsh tone.

I sighed tiredly with disinterest while Fruity shrugged his shoulders to make his plasma rifle known on his back to the stallion. “C’mon dude, just walk away, you don’t want to get cooked,” He said softly.

“Alright then,” The stallion replied and quickly shot forward and wrapped his foreleg around my neck and pulled me up against him and held me tight as if to hold me hostage despite not having any visible weapon at hoof. “Now, I’ll say again, give me all your caps,”

“I’m not in the mood for this,” I groaned with annoyance as the stallion tightly held my neck. Without moving my body I reached out with my nano-fibre tail. I ensnared my tail around the stallion’s own neck and pulled him off me. He yelped in surprise at having my tail grab him which made it easy for me to pull him away and then quickly deposited him away from me with a quick toss.

“Wow, you really are in a foul mood today aren’t you?” Fruity asked as he approached us.

“All things considered, yes,” I answered as I approached the downed thug as he moved his forehooves under his barrel as if to try and stand. My threat warning flashed and I quickly pulled my head back, just in time to avoid a slash from a switch blade that had been concealed within the sleeve of his jumpsuit. With a growl of annoyance, I pushed his foreleg down with my forehoof and then stamped on it. The stallion screamed in pain as an audible crack rang out from his leg.

“Jeez Crystal, do you think he deserved that?” Fruity asked with concern.

I scoffed. “We gave him a chance to walk away,”

“I guess but, don’t you think that was a little excessive?”

“Alright fine, I’m sorry ok, I’m really annoyed right now,” I replied with a soft growl as I fished out a healing potion from my medical box and gave it to the thug. “Now fuck off before I shoot you,”

The stallion, with fear clear in his eye took the potion and as fast as his healthy legs could carry him picked himself up and scampered away. It was like he couldn’t get away fast enough with how he was scrabbling to gallop off with three good legs.

“Are you ok?” Fruity asked as he laid a wing comfortingly over my back.

“No, not really, I’m feeling really annoyed right now,” I replied, hanging my head with a sigh.

“Is this because of what we learned from the hospital?” He asked while he gently rubbed at my withers with his wing.

“Yes, I feel like we haven’t learned anything and in fact taken a step back. Sure, we learned where we need to go is in Manehattan but we came from there. We also spent a bloody week on the train getting here and spent a further couple of days traipsing across the desert. On top of all that, we pissed about playing bounty hunter for some tall dark and handsome pony which sent us on a horror ride through our darkest fears, plus I feel horrible for lying to you for a week since we met about what I am,” I explained, letting it all out.

Fruity listened and continued to rub my withers soothingly. “Hey, we had an adventure. Sure it’s been bumpy, what with the shock of seeing what you really are and that Celestia damned stable trip through tartarus but hey, I think all in all its helped us grew closer together don’t you?” He asked as he gently pulled me closer to him.

I felt comforted by the warmth of his body against me and my foul mood lifted a little at his words, but just the other day when I was revealed he bolted at the sight of me. Sure he came back but it hurt and now I was wondering why he wasn’t so bothered now. I gently pulled away just enough so I could look him in the eyes. “Why are you so quick to accept me now after knowing what I really am?” I asked in a hopeful tone.

Fruity looked away for a moment as if in thought before he turned back and looked back at me, our eyes locking as he spoke. “Like you said, we’ve spent a week together on the train. Even though I know what you are now, I realise you yourself haven’t changed. You’re still the same mare I’ve grown to know and like despite the added knowledge that you’re a bio-mechanoid. I should never have doubted you and I shouldn’t have run off like I did. I’m sorry if I hurt you,” He apologised.

I blinked in surprise as tears threatened to spill from my eyes as he spilled out his forgiveness and an apology of his own. “W-what brought this on?” I asked in shock.

“Basically after hearing Dr Flask read out your medical report from his computer. You told me your story and what was wrong with you but to hear the evidence from him, from an official source…I suppose it put to rest any doubts I had about you or the story you told me.”

We stared at each other, just looking into each other’s eyes. I couldn’t look away from his hypnotic purple eyes as the tears in my eyes finally began to trickle down my cheeks. As we stared our muzzles began to draw closer and closer together and the closer we drew, the faster and harder my heart began to thump in my metal chest. I could feel my cheeks burning as we drew close enough that our noses were almost touching and I could feel his warm breath wafting over me from his nostrils. He then closed his eyes, tilted his head slightly to one side and leaned forward and pressed his lips up against mine in a kiss. My eyes widened in surprise but I felt elation from his acceptance and trust, I relaxed into the kiss, closing my own eyes and returning the kiss as I pressed forward as well. I felt all my tension melt away as we shared our first kiss together under the setting sun. Fruity pulled back from the kiss after a minute, but to me it felt like an eternity that we were engaged in our lip lock and smiled warmly at me.

“Feeling better now?” He asked with a goofy smile while he gently used his other wing to brush the tears that had dribbled down my cheeks away.

I nodded while the blush still burned my cheeks. “Thank you,” I said with a happy sigh.

Fruity gently squeezed me with his wing still over my withers. “Hey, I care about you. I got your back,”

I gave a genuine smile as I nuzzled under his chin. “I’m lucky to a friend like you,” I said softly. Our tender moment was ruined however when I heard a squeak beside us. Turning to face the sound of the squeak, I felt the blood in my face drain away as my eyes fell upon a giant bald rat. My heart froze in dread as my phobia of such things kicked in. “FUCKING RAT!” I screamed in terror and galloped as fast as my legs could carry me down the broken street. With how I tore away from Fruity I can only image I knocked him over to get away from the rat as soon as possible, but my sensitive ears could pick up the faint sounds of laughter as I ran for dear life.

XXXXX

“It wasn’t funny,” I pouted as we sat outside what used to be a cafe.

“I’m sorry but it was,” Fruity chuckled. He had found me shaking inside a wheelie bin near to the school on Broadwalk Avenue.

“Um, excuse me; are you the two ponies that sealed up Stable 16?” Asked a somewhat refined female voice.

We looked up from the table we were sat at to one of the casually dressed Queens ponies, a unicorn mare with a familiar elegant styled mane and tail and light blue eye shadow on her eyes that reminded me of the ministry mare Rarity.

“Um, that’s us,” Fruity confirmed.

“Oh good, ahem,” She coughed to clear her throat. “Miss Queenie would like to see you both personally at her private residence whenever you are available,” She announced in a professional manner.

“Wow really?” I asked surprised.

The mare simply nodded.

“Would she see us, um, like now?” Fruity asked. “We don’t have anything better to do right now do we Crystal?” I nodded in agreement.

The mare looked up at the darkening sky, the sun was nearing the horizon but it was still light out. “I don’t think it’s too late, ok… follow me please,” She said as she turned around and began to walk at a brisk pace.

We quickly got up and trotted after the mare. She lead us through a series of streets that almost made Hayside feel like a maze with how several of the streets were blocked off by rubble and just as the sky began to give way to the night, we emerged from a street that lead into an open area next to the perimeter wall as well as the dividing wall between Hayside and New Pegasus. Inside this open area sat a lone structure inside a half brick wall and iron fence. The building looked like a small manor and very familiar to me. It wasn’t until we came to the rusted open iron gates that the manor’s identity came to me. Each gate held the initials of its original owner and those initials were, “FR” and “SR”. This was the Las Pegasus home of Filthy Rich and Spoiled Rich.

I remember the Rich family clearly for two reasons. One being Filthy Rich; he made his fortune from a discount store chain known as “Barnyard Bargains” and was well known for all of his charity donations and fund raisers, he was the opposite of what some would expect from a rich pony. The other reason is his wife, Spoiled Rich, to sum her up in a word; she was just an utter bitch, snooty, stuck up, always looked down on ponies not rich like herself and generally arrogant.

The mare opened the front door to the old manor and lead us inside. The interior of manor’s lobby was breath taking. Despite everything being a little worn and tacky from being over two hundred years old, it all looked clean and very presentable. There were quite a few Queens walking around, cleaning this and that or doing something else, they all wore the same general casual attire but I noticed a trend. There were a certain few that shared the exact same mane and tail style, that familiar elegant curl. I suppose the style in mane and tail must symbolise a rank status or something as it was the only way to tell them apart. Directly in front of us was a large grand staircase that dominated the lobby which then spit halfway up to branch off to either side to reach the first floor. Standing on the landing where the stairs divided was a middle aged earth pony mare with creamy yellow fur wearing a familiar looking rose coloured dress with blue crystal hoof shoes. Her mane and tail were silver from age and was also stylised in that curl.

“Please, wait here,” The mare leading us said as we reached the foot of the stairs.

“Ok,” I said while the mare cantered up the stairs to the older mare.

“Darling, welcome home,” The older mare said in a stronger refined tone of voice. She sounded like an upper class pony and in everything I’ve experienced so far in the Marejave, it didn’t seem to fit. “Were you successful in your search?”

“Thank you mother, and yes,” Our escort replied, giving her mother a gentle neck hug upon reaching the landing. She then stood beside the well dressed older mare and gestured down to us. “These are the ponies responsible for sealing Stable 16,” She announced.

“Thank you Glitter dear, you may retire early this evening, you really must catch up on your beauty sleep,”

“Thank you mother,” Glitter said with a soft smile and respectful bow of the head before she turned and trotted up the rest of the stairs while her mother descended them towards us.

“It’s a pleasure to finally make your acquaintance Miss...” She began as she reached the lobby floor in front of us. She must’ve been in her mid to late fifties but she had certainly looked after herself for she had few noticeable wrinkles around her face.

“Oh, um, my name is Crystal Éclair,” I answered with a respectful nod as I realised she was waiting upon my name.

“And I’m Tooty Fruity, but please call me Fruity,” Added my pegasus friend.

The mare nodded at our names. “From what my Queens have informed me about you two, you are new in town, is that right?” She asked to clarify. We both nodded. “Well then, I am Miss Queenie, the leader of the Queens and welcome to my home,”

“Thank you for the invitation,” I said while I stood close to Fruity.

She gave a curt nod. “Please follow me,” She said as she turned and walked around the stairs to a door. We followed side by side as the elder mare lead us through the once proud estate. She led us down a couple of hallways that still had paintings of its original owners hung on the walls as well as landscapes of other places. We eventually were welcomed into a private sitting room toward the rear of the manor. It had several windows to the back of the room and to the left side while the rest of the walls mostly were decorated with bookshelves filled with mostly books ruined by age. In the middle of the room was a small table with a slightly stained tablecloth which also had several coasters on it and surrounding the table were sitting cushions.

“Please, take a seat,” Miss Queenie said as she gestured to the cushions while also seating herself on a large purple cushion with gold trim tassels.

“Thank you,” I said and slowly eased myself down on one of the cushions. Thankfully, my gentle action didn’t make the old cushion explode from my weight and held together. Fruity on the other hoof just plopped down without a care.

Miss Queenie gave a gentle smile as she sat up straight like a proper high class mare. “I would like to thank you both personally for what you have done. I know you didn’t do it out of the goodness of your heart since you went there initially to collect a bounty but still, you risked your lives inside that stable and choose to seal it up permanently. You probably didn’t realise it but you were saving the lives of countless ponies from a torturous death,”

I felt pride swell inside me to hear praise coming from Miss Queenie. I know she was like a leader of a gang, a gang that seems to maintain some resemblance of order in Hayside but also I didn’t get a bad feeling from her either and that I think she genuinely cares for the ponies in this town.

“Well, considering what we found out about that stable, we couldn’t in good conscious leave it open for any unlucky pony to stumble across it, nor could we really let those inside leave,” I said, getting a nod of agreement from Fruity.

“Oh, and what brought you to that conclusion?” She asked leaning forward with interest.

Fruity and I looked at each other with a grim expression. The memories of the stable still fresh in our minds and with what brought about its ruin. I sighed as I recounted our trip through Tartarus and back. I told her everything from the weird notes, the strange taste in the air, the insane inhabitants and then the true reason the stable fell apart. Miss Queenie leaned in closely as I recounted our tale and looked like an eager schoolfilly for gossip until I told her that Stable-Tec themselves were responsible for everything that transpired in that stable by unleashing the psychoactive drug into the air.

“Wait, so are you trying to tell me that Stable-Tec, the biggest tech company and builder of over a hundred shelters, built that stable purely as an experiment to record how the pony mind deteriorates?” Miss Queenie asked in shock.

“Yes, we found a guard’s written testimony detailing everything,”

“Sweet Celestia!”

“With the guard’s testimony detailing the drug in the air, we felt it was only best we seal the stable to prevent anypony else from stumbling upon the stable. We sealed the stable by destroying its control panels on both inside and out the door so now it’s permanently locked,” I finished. We strategically left out the portions that involved anything about me being a machine and our encounter with I-02 IS. We got around our near half day exposure by altering the part of our story to say I was rendered unconscious in the safe zone which wasn’t really that far from the truth.

After we finished our tale fully Miss Queenie leaned back from the table and gently clapped her forehooves in applause. “Marvellous, simply marvellous. You have saved everypony in Hayside from a horrible fate should they decide to try and scavenge in Stable 16 and not only that but also the entire Marejave. For what you have done for us I would like to offer you a favour,”

I raised an eyebrow. A favour, what did she mean by that?

She must have noticed my raised eyebrow. “A favour from me goes a long way, if it is within my power, it’s done,” She said matter-of-factly as she sat up straight with her nose in the air.

“Um, so we could ask for anything and if it was within your power as the leader of the Queens you would make it happen?” Fruity asked.

“Yes darling,”

“Don’t suppose you know of any M.o.A places around here do you?” I asked jokingly.

“Hmm, as a matter of fact, I do recall my Queens telling me several times of prospectors complaining about an M.o.A Facility they tried to scavenge in but failed to open the door to. If this is what you want, I can tell you were to find it,”

Fruity and I looked at each other for a moment; both of us had the same idea since neither of us wanted anything, plus we were waiting for the train to be ready and needed something to do.

“Yes please, we currently don’t have anything better to do right now and thank you,”

“It’s my pleasure darling, though I do feel it is a waste of my favour. But I’ve had worse requests,” She said as she stood up from her cushion and walked over to a small desk under the window between two bookshelves and opened a drawer. She nosed around inside for a moment before she plucked out a folded up piece of paper and brought it back to the table and laid it out and unfolded it. The piece of paper turned out to be a pre-war map of the Marejave and had many locations marked on it, many with question marks but plenty had the letter Q on them to suggest they were places known to the Queens and one such place was marked as “M.o.A?” between “Bon Bon Springs and here.

Miss Queenie gently tapped her crystal shoed hoof onto the map just next to the marker indicating “M.o.A?”

“This is where from multiple sources my Queens have identified the location of the facility. From what they have said, their sources have all described it hidden inside a house nestled in alcove around this area. However I must warn you, if you really are going to go out there. This area of the desert is home to Paradores.”

I snorted and chuckled to myself. I couldn’t help it, the name of whatever those things were Miss Queenie wanted to warn us about just sounded ridiculous.

“Forgive my friend, she’s been in a freezer for two hundred years and has no idea what a Paradore is,” Fruity said quickly.

“Ah, well in any case darling, do you still wish go out there?”

We nodded although Fruity was a little hesitant.

“Ok then,” Miss Queenie got up and opened the door for us. “I’ll show you to a guest room that you can spend the night in and later I’ll have one of my aids bring you a pair of 9mm Submachine Guns and a few grenades that should help you against the Paradoses should you encounter any tomorrow. I assume you’ll leave in the morning for the facility?”

“Yes, and thank you again Miss Queenie, you’re too kind,” I replied after being surprised at her telling us she’ll be giving us some guns and grenades. She gave a light smile as she lead the way through the manor again, leading us back to the grand stairs and then up to the first floor and into one of the hallways at the top. She stopped at the end of a hallway and gestured to red painted door.

“I hope you’ll enjoy your stay this evening,” She said before she cantered off again, leaving us alone. Fruity opened the door to the guestroom we’d be using and we walked inside. It was large and nicely furnished for a guestroom. It had a couple of armchairs with a small table next to a large window which sadly didn’t have much of a view as our room was facing the junk wall of New Pegasus. There were several solid oak dressers and wardrobes dotted about, but the most noticeable feature of the room was the large four poster bed against the back wall with red and white silk sheets and a huge heart shaped pillow leaning up against the headboard.

“Wow,”

“This is nice!”

We walked over to the bed but before we could climb onto it there was a short three raps against our door.

“I’ll get it,” Fruity announced as he turned and headed for the door.

I nodded as I decided to undress for bed. I sat on my hunches as I began to undo my duster, then took it off and folded it up neatly and placed it on the nearby armchair. I did the same with my undershirt and then placed my slightly tattered steston on top. I stood up and gently took off my dusty hoof shoes from my hind hooves that had been protecting my precious socks. Sadly, my socks had been torn in several places from our trip through that damn stable. At least by now my hind leg had fully regenerated, fur and all, although the regrowth of my fur nearly drove me mad when leaving New Pegasus. Lastly, I reached up to my ponytailed mane and pulled out the blue hair band and put it on top of my hat and shook my head to let my mane out and fall down around the back of my neck and shoulders.

I gently climbed up onto the bed. It creaked slightly as it took my weight but thankfully, the expensive hard wood bed was still strong enough to hold something as heavy as me. I sighed and sunk into the mattress, feeling relaxed for first time since leaving the train.

“Thank you,” I heard Fruity say before hearing the door close with a click. I lifted my head to see him walking over to the bed with a green ammo box balancing on his back with his rifle.

“That was quick,” I commented as Fruity sat down, making the box slide off his back and crash to the floor with a bang.

“Yeah,” He agreed. There was a dull thud as the lid opened and two small black 9mm SMGs fell out along with half a dozen grenades that rolled across the room. “Ah, bollocks!” He shouted as he quickly rushed to gather the rolling explosives and put them back into the ammo box and pushed it up right so they wouldn’t fall out again. I giggled lightly from watching him. I smiled as after he collected all the grenades he too then took his clothes off, just dumped them into a heap on the floor though, and joined me on the bed.

I rolled over to face him properly. He smiled warmly as he looked me over and I could feel both my cheeks heating up with a blush and my heart start to thump its way through my armoured metal chest again.

“You know,” He began softly as we stared at each other again, “You do look amazing,”

I felt my whole face feel like it went up in flames. “But you’ve seen what I really used to look like; do you really think I look good as a zebra?” I asked in disbelief.

He smiled broadly. “I do,” He replied honestly as he lean forward again. He pursed his lips and closed his eyes for a kiss. I did the same this time; I wanted this as much as he did. It was almost electric when our lips met and we began to push back and forth with each other as we kissed, mashing out lips while Fruity’s tongue soon began to press at my lips. With a soft moan of acceptance, I parted my lips to grant his tongue entry and I used my tongue to dance with his in my mouth. I could feel his passion in the kiss, I could feel how much he cared and it warmed my heart to know I was liked by a stallion this much despite him knowing what I am.

We broke the kiss after what felt like an eternity but were really just a minute or two. I cooed happily as I snuggled close to him and draped a foreleg around him and gently nestled my head under the crook of his neck.

“Thank you,” I sighed softly.

He replied by nuzzling into my mane before we fell asleep in each other’s embrace.

XXXXX

We had left Miss Queenie’s manor early that morning and headed out in a north-easterly direction. I had given Fruity one of the SMGs before we left and also split the grenades evenly between us. After our meeting with the Queens leader, my Pipbuck had updated its map with an unknown location and had automatically set a way point to it. We were currently following it.

By one in the afternoon we were well into the desert again. We had passed where Tango used to hide out and continued on. Dunes of sand and rocky hills were all around us now as well as a cliff to our left and worst of all my EFS was starting to fill up with red bars that seemed to be moving very quickly which made it hard to track them. We crested a hill and Fruity immediately pulled me down to my stomach as we saw mutated bug like creatures on the other side.

“Fruity, what are those?” I whispered in a scared voice.

“Those are Paradores,” Fruity replied grimly.

What we had seen was a large bodied bug like creature. It had small to near non-existent limbs, large orange wings, a stinger tail and a huge gaping mouth full of teeth. The worst thing was that there were loads of them, like a swarm in all the colours of the rainbow all hovering around. My waypoint was taking us on a path that would take us straight through them.

“We need to find a way around,” Fruity whispered.

“How dangerous are they?” I asked although I gathered they were pretty dangerous considering what I’ve noticed about them.

“Let’s put it this way, they catch us, we’re knackered,”

Yeah, that didn’t fill me with any confidence at all. “So, what do you propose we do?”

“I think it’ll be best if we sneak our way around them, hug the wall of the cliff and use the boulders and rocks near it as cover to get around them. It’ll take time but at least it’ll be safer than ringing the dinner bell for them,”

“Good idea, ok, let’s go,”

Fruity nodded and then crouched low as he began to sneak. I mirrored his movements, getting low and moving as quick but as quietly as I could toward the cliff. We weaved between rocks and boulders, trying not to kick over any stones or crunch any under our hooves as we snuck around the swarm of bugs. I kept flicking my eyes to my EFS to check on my threat markers but no matter how many times I checked I just couldn’t tell if I was seeing new contacts or they were the old ones because these bugs were moving so damn fast.

After what seemed like ten minutes of sneaking we got around the bugs and came to a curve in the cliff. We could see an abandoned looking house nestled into an alcove in the cliff up ahead and my direction marker was pointing right at it. That was it, we had found it.

*Clack, clack, clank*

Oh no. I froze as a stone had fallen from the cliff after I brushed passed it and it bounced off the rock face as it tumbled to the sandy floor on its way down. Suddenly, my threat warning flashed into my vision, bright red, and immediately afterward we could hear the sound of buzzing wings. We looked back and my stomach dropped like a lead weight. Nearly every single paradore, at least thirty in total, had turned to face us and were buzzing towards us.

“Change of plan, LEG IT!” Fruity yelled and without any further encouragement, we took as fast as we could for the abandoned house and what shelter it could provide us.

With a fearful yell I turned with Fruity and broke into a full on gallop. I could hear the storm of buzzing wings behind us as we ran for the house. Fear and dread gripped my thumping heart as I drove my mechanical legs to push me faster.

“What do we do?” I cried.

“Shut up and run!” Fruity yelled as he spread his wings and leapt into the air, flying parallel with the ground to free his hooves. As he glided, he reached into his duster pocket and retrieved one of the three grenades he carried and pulled the pin. He didn’t throw it like I expected, he held onto it for a couple of seconds before just dropping it so it landed in the sand as we sped past it. At first I didn’t understand why he didn’t throw it until it exploded and the explosion was accompanied by the sounds of several cries and squeals of pain from the mutants behind us. He must have figured the majority of the bugs would pass over the grenade chasing us by the time it exploded which would catch a good lot of them, killing or hurting them in the process. He pulled out his second grenade and did the same and we received the same result but this time with a few less cries of pain.

“We’re nearly there, keep running!” He shouted as he flipped over onto his back, pumping his wings and surprising me that he was still flying while flying on his back. While he flew on his back, he also had his Q-Modulator in his hooves and was aiming it behind us between his hind legs at the bugs. I didn’t look back, just kept looking forward as I ran, just kept my focus on the house as we came closer and closer while Fruity began to fire plasma bolts.

Fruity flipped back over and landed as we came to the house. The paradores were nearly quite literally on our asses as we threw open the front door and slammed it shut.

“Fuck, err, we need to barricade the door,” Fruity panted tiredly as we looked around. Thankfully, we didn’t have to look far as right next to the door was a large wooden cabinet.

“I got it!” I shrieked in a panic and reared up onto my hindlegs and grabbed the cabinet with my hooves and pulled. It didn’t take much for my mechanical super strength to pull it down from the wall and it fell in front of the door with a loud crash and blocked the front door. I was about to sigh in relief that we got away from the bugs when a crack of glass rung out from the room to the right up ahead in the hallway. We quickly ran through the hall and into the living room.

Paradores were bunching up against the windows trying to push their way in. Luckily for us, the windows were only big enough for one bug at a time to get through.

“This is good, we can bottleneck’em,” Fruity said as he quickly stood on his hind legs and aimed his plasma rifle.

I nodded and fished out my 9mm SMG from my duster pocket with my tail and plucked Lucky 13 from its holster and aimed both guns at the nearest window.

“Let them have it,” Fruity shouted and the pair of use began to unload our guns into the bugs trying to squeeze through the broken windows.

I discarded my 9mm SMG as soon as it ran dry because I noticed with my synthetic vision that the small calibre rounds were merely chipping away at the mutated bug’s carapaces. Even though Lucky 13 was a higher calibre, the bullets were penetrating but doing little damage but at least the revolver was slowing them down, slightly. Fruity of the other hoof was doing well.

“Eat shit and die,” He yelled with fright in his voice as a plasma bolt shot into the mouth of one of the paradoes that tried to squeeze through the window. The bug bloated up like a balloon before popping and showering its buddies in plasma goo.

With us both firing we managed to hold them off while also getting them to all bunch up against the windows. They were so desperate to get at us they were clogging the broken windows up with themselves.

“Crystal, quick, get two grenades out and pull the pins and throw them into the bugs,” Fruity shouted as he liquefied a bug that managed to get in.

I nodded, holstered Lucky 13 and quickly used my tail to fish out the grenades from my duster pockets. It took me a minute as I fumbled about trying to pick them both out in my panicked rush but eventually I got both of my grenades out. I gripped the grenades in my hooves and pulled the pins out with my teeth.

“Shall I throw them now?” I asked, considering Fruity waited with his.

“No, just hold onto them a little longer,” Fruity said in a very obvious sarcastic but frantic tone. “Throw the damn things!”

I eeped and fumbled the live grenades again and nearly dropped them. I held them ready to throw. There were four windows in the living room, all at the front of the living room and the middle two had the biggest concentration of paradores trying to push through the broken windows so I decided to throw my grenades through the two middle windows. I threw the grenades as hard as I could through the windows and into the bugs. I don’t know where one of them went but I heard the distinct sound of metal hitting wood meaning one of my grenades had bounced back and hit the wall of the house. As soon as I let the first frag loose, Fruity bolted for the door behind me which lead into the kitchen and booted the door down.

“Quickly!!” He shouted.

I got up and followed my friend into the small disgusting kitchen as he flipped the small aluminium dining table over onto its side and hunkered down behind it for cover. I quickly followed and as soon as I lay flat on my stomach behind the table, two explosions rocked the small old house followed by the sound of squealing bugs and splintering wood. After a few moments, we peeked out from behind out cover and through the kitchen door and sighed with relief as we watched what remained of the paradore swarm scurry away.

“Thank Celestia,” I breathed with relief.

“There’ll come back eventually, we better find that M.o.A thing fast,” Fruity warned.

I looked down at my direction marker. “We’re on top of it, it’s here somewhere,” I looked around, while being on top of it my direction marker wasn’t pointing to anything specific anymore. “Maybe we should split up, that way we can cover the whole house faster,”

“Good idea, we can’t hang around for those bastards to come back, I have no interest in being pony chow,” Fruity said as he moved to head back into the living room.

“I’ll check upstairs,” I announced and cantered to the stairs back in the hallway by the front door. The stairs creaked as I walked up the steps but they held thankfully and when I reached the landing at the top I only found three doors. One led into the bathroom, one into the small or foal’s bedroom and one into the master bedroom. All three of the rooms were missing their doors and the bathroom and small bedroom were empty saves for piles of rubbish and other debris. The master bedroom however was furnished, if lightly with just a bed and a wardrobe that covered the far wall. The answer to the missing bedroom doors lay in the master bedroom as they were up against the bedroom windows as if to bar them but they were littered with holes. On the floor by the wardrobe and next to the wall with the windows were two skeletons of griffons in what remained of combat armour.

“FRUITY!” I cried at the discovery.

“What, what is it?” He panted after he frantically scampered up the stairs to join me.

I pointed to the skeletons in the bedroom. My pegasus friend walked into the bedroom and examined the bodies.

“Griffons, been dead for years considering there is nothing but bone left. Hmm, maybe we can salvage their armour and...” He paused as he reached under the wing bones of one of the griffons. I walked over and sat down just behind him so I could see. “A lever-action shotgun,” He finished as he pulled out the dusty twenty gauge shotgun. “Hmm, unless you’re a unicorn or can balance on your hind legs, this gun is no good to us,”

“Let me see,” I said. Fruity shrugged as he hoofed over the dusty gun to me while he began to examine the armour. He was right; I wouldn’t be able to use the gun unless I was standing on my hindlegs as the lever and trigger were designed for griffon talons or minotaur hands, but there was a way for me to use this and a shotgun could be useful and a good backup weapon to Lucky 13. I knew I could use the gun if I held it with my nano-fibre tail and so I willed my tail to grasp the weapon by the handle and after thinking of how a griffon’s talons would hold the gun, I arranged the hairs in a similar fashion. Hmm, how was I supposed to cock the lever without supporting the gun by its barrel? I then remembered an old action movie where the action hero that was a minotaur and used a lever action weapon and instead of cocking the level like normal, he twirled the gun around his hand which cocked the lever out and back in as the gun completed the revolution and landed back into his grip cocked and ready to fire again. I would need to practice that style with my tail later.

“Alright,” Fruity said as he held the chest piece of one of the dead griffon’s suits of armour. “The fabric is too far gone to make their armour wearable, but we can salvage the actual armour plates. Maybe even add them to our own outfits,”

“How do you mean?” I asked as I placed the shotgun on my back.

“Like this,” Fruity said as he slipped the chest piece into place on his chest just under his duster but on top of his undershirt. “We’d have to secure the armour plate to our clothing first though, be like some sort or layered armour. I’ve seen a few ponies with cobbled together armours like this,” He suggested to which I nodded as he then picked up a shoulder guard and did the same, placing it on his shoulder and explaining how it could be fixed to the shoulder of the duster. After agreeing the armour plates could be useful to make our current gear more protective, we pocketed the plates and Fruity told me he had found the door to the basement earlier. If I was to hide something, it would be in the basement so we decided to check down there.

We descended into the basement through a door under the stairs into a dark but rather dry and large basement that was filled with cobwebs. Another thing that stood out to me in this basement was the lack of support beams for the house above and that it was quite bare. There was nothing in here. No boxes, no old rubbish, no nothing. The only thing I could see were a few sets of empty wine racks at the back which looked to be built into groves in the rock wall of the cliff the house was built between.

“I don’t see anything,” Fruity complained as we walked into the empty basement.

“Yea but something about this just doesn’t look right,” I said while looking down at my compass. This time, my EFS had a clear direction and it was pointing me to the wine racks. “My direction marker is pointing to the back of the basement,” I thought out loud.

It seemed that the basement was built up against the rock face of the cliff and the wine racks were built into small alcoves carved out of the rock. I moved from one rack to the next until I stopped at the last one in the left hoof corner of the basement right where my direction marker was pointing, and leaned close to get a better look at it.

“Found something?” Fruity asked.

“My direction marker is pointing me to this rack,” I said while trying to see past or through it.

Fruity stood beside me and then shivered. “Whoa, I don’t know if you can feel that but I can feel a breeze coming from behind that shelf,” He said fluffing his wings. It made sense if he could feel a breeze as he was a Pegasus. He was likely more in tune to air currents.

“So there is something behind there, so how do we move this?” I asked, looking at the rack and finding no way to grab a hold of it with how tightly it sat inside the small alcove it sat in.

“I dunno, give it a kick,” Fruity said with a shrug.

“If you say so,” I replied and turned around, reared up onto my forehooves and kicked with my hind legs. My rear hooves struck the wooden rack, but besides the splintering of wood a metallic clang rung out while I grunted in surprise. When I turned back around I saw the areas my hooves had hit were now devoid of wood but the frame of the rack was still intact as it was made from metal.

“Now that I didn’t expect,” I moaned, my rear hooves aching from the surprise strike on metal.

“Eeyup,”

I opened my mouth to say something when the rack suddenly began to move backwards deeper into the alcove. After it moved back about ten feet, it then slid to the right to reveal a large metal door behind it which was emblazoned with the insignia of the Ministry of Awesome.

“Um, I guess we found it…” I said after picking my jaw up off the floor after watching the secret door open.

Fruity just nodded with wide eyes.

As we approached the door to the M.o.A facility, something began to nag at the back of my mind. Something telling me that I should know this place, but I couldn’t for the life of me understand the feeling. The door was sealed tight and was covered in scratches and blast marks from either bullet impacts or explosive detonations so it was obvious we were not the first to make it this far. I suppose Miss Queenie was right that others had come here and tried to loot this place but couldn’t get past the door. Beside the door to our right sat a terminal with a card reader.

Fruity was standing by the terminal and with a nod from me he pressed a button on its keypad to wake it up. I joined him as the screen flashed to life but unlike the other terminals that displayed walls of text to which we had to choose a word to guess the password, this terminal simply said.

“Authorised personnel only... Keycard required.”

“A keycard…where the hell are we supposed to find one of those?” Fruity asked.

“I dunno,” I said feeling disappointed that we go this far and chased by mutant bugs to only get stopped at the door like everypony else who came to this place. As I read the first part again regarding a keycard something came to mind. My mother’s ID Badge we found the other day, it was an M.o.A ID badge and it did say on it that my mother’s security clearance was administrating level. I reached into my pocket where I put the card with my tail and pulled it out, if this works, then I never knew my mother as well as I thought I did and it scared me at the possibility my own mother had lied to me about who she really was.

“Are you ok?” Fruity asked with concern as he noticed me staring at the ID badge in my tail’s grip.

I shook my head. This wasn’t the time to lose my head over that. I could lose my mind over it during the train ride back to Manehattan when we had a week to ourselves. I took a deep breath and slipped the card into the card reader and the computer began to scan the internal chip. To my dismay, the red light above the door turned green and the door began to open as a male electronic voice spoke.

“Welcome back to Upgrade Station Alpha Mrs Éclair,”

I took the card back and slipped it into my duster pocket again as we began to walk inside. “What were you doing here mother?” I asked myself quietly.

“Wow that actually worked, I can’t believe it,” Fruity said amazed.

“Yea, but it also raised more questions about my past,” I said glumly as we had entered a short metal corridor.

Fruity walked up to my side and laid his wing over my withers. “Hey, we’ll find the answers eventually together, I promise,” He reassured. I smiled warmly at him and nuzzled his cheek.

“Thank you…”

We came to a door that looked very similar to one of those vertical opening doors inside stables and as we came within a couple of feet of it, the door opened automatically and allowed us access into a large open room. The room was pretty huge but also extremely dark as most of the lights were out. From what we could see from the open door, there were several chambers lining a wall, dark shadowy corners with metal boxes, canisters and cables and in the middle of the room was a large computer system. The computer screen was dark but there were still some blinking lights on its console to say it was still active. On further observation I noticed that there was no degeneration in here, no grime, no rust. It was like the door had sealed the outside world off and kept the contents of this facility safe. The air in here was also old and stale. I also noticed a table and several chairs were scattered about and over turned here and there with lots of papers all over the place like the ponies that worked here left in a real big hurry.

I turned to Fruity. “Let’s split up again, we’ll cover this place faster,”

“Sure, this place is rather dark and spooky, I’d rather be out of here as soon as possible, plus it’ll be best for us to get out of here before those buggers come back,” He agreed. I nodded and we parted ways. I headed for the chambers I saw against the wall while Fruity made his way to the computer.

I counted a dozen of these large black chambers and all but one of them was sealed up tight. They looked like large containers but they had an electronically controlled door at the front. I couldn’t figure out what could be stored inside but the last one I checked was open and curious to see if there was anything at all inside I walked in to investigate.

XXXXX

Fruity landed before the large computer. A single light from above illuminated the console and a section of the screen but the upper corners and edges of the screen were shrouded in darkness due to the lack of working lighting in the facility.

“Hmm, where’s the on button?” Fruity said to himself as he squinted at the keypads trying to find the console’s power button. After a few seconds of failing to see anything that resembled a power button of any kind, the pegasus resorted to the tried and tested technique of pressing random buttons to bring a computer out of standby. However, to the pegasus’s surprise and mounting frustration no matter how many different keys he pressed as he sat on his haunches the computer screen remained dark.

“What is wrong with this thing?” He muttered as he continued to press random buttons as his frustration grew. Unfortunately for the pegasus, he failed to notice the cracks in the computer monitor that were hidden in the shroud of the dark shadows that blanketed the edges of the screen. The cracks were from an impact hole in the bottom corner of the screen where a chair had struck the screen, which resulted in a short circuit and thus the screen forever went dark. Little did he know, despite the screen not working, the computer itself was still very much operational and his random button pressing was accidently triggering its systems.

Upgrade system engaged,” The same male electronic voice said from the facility’s speakers.

“Wait what?!” Fruity gasped in surprise. At that moment he heard a hydraulic hiss and whirled around to its source. His heart dropped to the pit of his stomach as he saw the chamber that his bionic zebra friend had stepped into close up tight.

“Ahh!” He heard Crystal scream from inside the end chamber and he was off like a shot. He flew across the room and landed before the chamber and banged against the sealed door.

“Crystal, are you alright, what’s wrong?!” He shouted while he tried to see if there was any way for him to pry the door open.

“My hooves, the floor clamped onto hooves, I’m stuck, help me Fruity!” She cried.

“I’m trying!” He shouted in a panic and rocketed back to the computer and began to feverishly press at buttons, hoping to hit a button that’ll release her. “Why won’t the screen come on?” He asked himself out loud as he tried to press as many button combinations as he could.

Compatible Infiltrator detected, please key in desired upgrade,”

“I want you to cancel and release my friend,” Fruity yelled in fear and panic for his trapped friend while still pressing buttons.

Pegasus upgrade keyed in and accepted, upgrading in t-minus ten seconds,”

“WHAT, NO!” Fruity screamed as he flared his wings and took off back to the chamber.

“F-Fruity,” Crystal whimpered as he banged against the door again.

“I can’t stop it,” He replied fearfully as he continued to look for a way to open the chamber but a square panel on the door that began to glow a dull red caught his attention and he rear up to investigate. As he stood on his hind legs and peered at the square, he realised it was a window into the chamber and he could see his friend bound to the floor. Her hooves were caught in what almost looked like bear-traps and despite her struggles she couldn’t pull her hooves free. At the back of the chamber the wall had split open to reveal a rotary rack with what looked like spare parts of many different pieces and beside it a series of manipulator arms which were all illuminated by a red light from behind them.

“Help me!” Crystal cried as one of the robotic arms from the back wall began to extend out.

Fruity jumped back from the chamber door and pulled his Q-Modulator from his back and aimed at the door. His intent was to melt through the door, but then again he could permanently seal the chamber with Crystal inside if he fired. He didn’t know what to do. He was totally lost.

“What am I to do, I can’t use the computer because I can’t tell what I’m doing and I can’t find any controls for this chamber and I can’t use my plasma rifle to melt the door because I could actually seal her in, ugh, what can I...” His train of thought was derailed when he heard Crystal scream in agony only for it to suddenly cut off mid scream. He felt his heart stop as he zoomed back to the window and what he saw horrified him. The robotic arm that he had seen moving toward her which had a large spike on it had been rammed into her forehead and now Crystal stood ramrod stiff and her stetson lay on the floor behind her, knocked off by the impact to her head.

“Crystal?” He called to her. His friend didn’t react to his voice or even move. “CRYSTAL?!” He screamed again fearing the worst until her head that was leaning back from being impaled by the robotic arm rolled forward slowly until it faced forward and she stood perfectly still like a mannequin. The pegasus stallion then heard the sounds of motors and he looked up to the back of the room to see four more robotic arms with manipulators extending out towards his petrified friend. As the new mechanical arms moved he noticed two mirrors in the top back corners of the chamber. He found it odd that there would be mirrors inside until he noticed a red glow coming from the palms of each of the manipulators.

“W-what’s going on?” He asked nopony in particular in horror. He could feel his heart thundering in his chest as he saw each manipulator let loose a beam of red magical energy from a small gem built into their palms. The beam was focused into a precision laser as it began to cut into his zebra friend’s flesh. The pegasus felt his stomach start to churn as the manipulators that had extended to her torso began to trace around the area that would make her shoulder and the worst of all were the two by her face that cut the flesh around her eyes. The process was painfully slow and in a few minutes Fruity witnessed the manipulators complete their incisions around both her eyes and around both her shoulders. Sadly they were not done. One of them moved down below her barrel and moved to where the end of her ribs would have been while another moved around to the back of her head and to the base of her skull and again they began to cut with their lasers.

“I’m going to be sick,” Fruity whimpered as a rectangle was cut into the back of Crystal’s head, he could only assume the same for under her barrel since he couldn’t see down there.

The bionic mare now had three manipulators around her barrel and one behind her head. Suddenly they shot forward, their piercing fingers gripping the flesh within the area that had been cut and with a sickening, sticky slurping sound the robotic arms pulled apart, each arm pulling a section of inch or so thick meat with them. The process also destroyed the mare’s outfit, her medical box fell to the floor and her duster collapsed from being torn and snagged by the manipulators leaving the mare naked in just her socks and shoes again.

“Holy fucking Faust!” Fruity shrieked as he saw the manipulators pull chunks of meat from his friend’s body, revealing large portions of her endoskeleton underneath, especially on her shoulders. From his perspective he could see the metallic shoulder blade but he could see what looked like a circular socket of some kind above the foreleg. He also saw a small rectangular chunk get pulled from under her barrel as well as from the back of her neck. The one from the back of her neck revealed a series of small ports. He caught movement again and watched as two of the manipulators moved back to the front of his friend and raised their manipulators to her face, aiming for her eyes that had been previously cut out.

Fruity’s eyes widened in realisation as to what was about to happen. “Oh Celestia, please no,” He cried. He didn’t know what was going on in there but he sure hoped that his friend couldn’t feel what was being done to her, he couldn’t imagine the amount of pain she must be in if she was conscious to it all. Then the worst happened, the manipulators thrust forward and stabbed into her very eyes, one of them even popped as they pulled the organic material off of her face before dumping it into a chute in the corner with the rest of the removed flesh. That was the last straw for his stomach and Fruity threw his head over to the side and lost his breakfast. Seeing the automated machine pull out his friend’s eyes was just too much for him.

After recovering, he wiped his mouth and unwillingly peered back through the window, he could see the mechanical eyes he was now familiar with, deeply set into her endoskeletal skull staring back into nothing in the mirrors in the corners of the room. She looked absolutely horrible now and he felt horrible because he knew it was his fault she was in this situation. If she survived this, he would have a lot to make up for.

“Not again please,” Fruity whined as the same two manipulators that took her organic eyes returned to her face and moved forward and grasped her synthetic eyes. The tips of the manipulators’ fingers fiddled for a moment inside her eye sockets before they pulled back with her robotic eyes in their grasp. However, unlike her flesh, the two arms moved to the rack which then rotated until an empty bin rolled around and they deposited the optical units into it. The rack began to rotate again until a wire basket of similar looking optical units rolled around. The robotic manipulators plucked an eye each from the selection and moved them over to his friend and inserted them into her skull, and after a minute of securing them the lenses of her new eyes began to glow with an electric blue hue.

The rack began to rotate again while one of the robotic arms moved under her barrel. The rack stopped just as the robotic arm opened a small hatch under her barrel, reached inside and then pulled out a small rectangular looking object with a lightning bolt symbol on the side to indicate it was a power source of some kind while the rack rotated until another bin appeared full of similar looking objects. The manipulator deposited the removed power cell from Crystal into an empty bin before retrieving a new power cell from the bin. It inserted it back inside of her torso and closed the small hatch.

The rack rotated again until the small items disappeared and full blown limbs back to roll around on the rack. Soon the rack stopped and had landed on a selection that Fruity knew all too well.

“Pegasus wings,” He said to himself as he saw the pegasus skeletal wing structures. They mimicked a pegasi’s wing almost perfectly in skeletal structure and each of the bone like segments were dotted with red talisman like objects. Two of the manipulators plucked a pair of wings from the rack, holding them by a small, dome like construct at their base before they moved them over to Crystal’s exposed shoulders. Fruity realised as the bonelike wings were shoved into the circular sockets, what the socket were for and that the wings were in full extend, allowing him to gauge what Crystal’s new wingspan would be when this was all over. “Her wings will be as big as mine,” He sighed with sorrow as the manipulators twisted, locking the wings in place before a rotating head on one of the fingers screwed in several securing pins.

The wrack began to rotate again until a series of wire bins with what looked like computer chips filled each one rolled into view. Two of the four manipulators moved up and into the bins, plucking a chip from a separate bin each before moving to the exposed portion at the back of her head and then shoved the new chips into her head before the four manipulator arms retracted back into the wall next to the rack.

Hardware installation, complete, commencing with mental conditioning and magic conversion,” The computer voice announced.

“Oh Goddesses please stop,” Fruity cried and banged in vain on the door as he watched. The arm stuck in his friend’s head began to glow as it performed what other task it was designed to carry out. The device glowed with power, extracting her previous pony type magic before selecting a stored magic from a pegasus that had given up their magic centuries prior and infusing the bionic mare with its pegasi magic. The process seemed to only take a minute or two before it stopped and then the robotic arm suddenly pulled back. Fruity began to dry heave when he saw the several inch long spike that had been driven into his friend’s forehead. He almost thought she was dead after having a spike shoved into her brain but when the robotic arm returned to its place in the wall, he noticed that in the mirrors he could see that she had another one of those circular sockets on her forehead and he then remembered that she also had an electronic brain inside her head. The spike must have used the socket to connect with the electronic brain. He expected her to snap back to reality as soon as the spike was removed from her head but she didn’t, and she remained ramrod stiff.

Mental conditioning and magic conversion, complete... subject pre-fleshed, commencing with genetic alteration and organic regeneration,”

Another robotic arm extended out from the open back wall but unlike the others, this one simply had what appeared to be a pink gem on the end of it. It rose up high above the partially deskinned bionic mare and then began to glow with a bright pink light, bathing the nearly upgraded bio-mechanoid in its healing glow. The wounds caused by the upgrade process began to close rapidly. Even the organic eyes that had been removed grew back as they followed the genetic profile of the mare that was being regenerated. The pink gem suddenly turned green and then the flesh that had bunched up around the newly fitted wings began to grow up the skeletal wings, forming new muscle fibres and skin. Soon, muscle and skin covered the wings and then white feathers began to grow, filling the wings with fluffy feathers. The last feathers to grow into the wings were the grey primary feathers before finally she was one hundred percent regenerated again, plus a new pair of wings.

Upgrade, Complete,”

Fruity let out a deep sigh of relief that the horror was finally over. The last robotic arm returned into the wall and it closed up, plunging the chamber back into darkness. Fruity almost fell over when the chamber door pushed out and began to slide open.

“Crystal?” Fruity asked softly.

His friend remained ramrod stiff for a moment before suddenly going limp. She nearly fell over before she caught herself and took a deep fearful breath. She suddenly backpedalled and bowled the pegasus over in a mad dash to get out of the chamber in her panic. She panted heavily in fear and rubbed at her new perfectly restored forehead.

“WHAT JUST HAPPENED?!” She screamed.

“I-I’m so sorry,” Fruity whimpered as he picked himself up.

It was then his friend noticed the large feathery wings sticking out from her sides. “What is this?” She asked in a whisper, reaching up with a hoof, she brushed at the grey primary feathers of one of her wings and she shivered, feeling the sensation of her feathers and her eyes shrunk to pinpricks. She slowly turned her head, eyes wide as she looked down at her sides. Her eyes grew even wider and she began to tremble upon seeing that the wings now belonged to her.

“Crystal, it’s going to be ok,” Fruity urged, noticing his friend was about to freak out. Unfortunately, she screamed in total panic, beat her wings and took off so fast she left a teal and orange gold contrail behind her. Fruity blinked dumbfounded, she was gone so fast he didn’t have a chance to try and stop her. He couldn’t comprehend how she could already fly and fly so incredibly fast. He was snapped out of his stupor when something smacked into the back of his head and tumbled to the floor. Looking down at what hit him he saw his friend’s stetson, slightly more tattered after being thrown from her head during the upgrade. “Oh Crystal, what have I done to you…?” He looked up and noticed the contrail was fading. “Oh shit,” He picked up his friend’s hat with his teeth and took off as fast as he could after her.

He quickly galloped out of the facility, through the basement, up the stairs into the house and out the front door while all the while following the fading contrail. The purple pegasus spread his wings and took to the air as he flew as fast as he could while he followed the contrail in the mid afternoon sun. For a moment he feared he would lose his friend with how the trail she left behind was fading but after following it east he finally saw her sat at the top a hill overlooking a valley. The contrail had completely faded by the time he landed and trotted slowly up to his friend.

“Crystal?” He mumbled around the steston in his mouth. He got no reply as she remained sat down staring into nothing. With a sigh he lifted the hat and gently placed it onto her head. She flinched and blinked before turning to him with wide, fearful eyes.

“F-Fruity?” She whimpered.

“Hey, are you ok?” He asked softly, knowing full well she wasn’t.

“I, I don’t know, what, what happened to me, why do I have wings, how do I know how to fly, how do I know how to use them?!” She asked, her voice started out in a whimper but grew into a pained cry of confusion and emotional agony from the experience she just endured.

“I don’t know, it must have something to do with the upgrade thing that was done to you,” Fruity replied sadly.

“Why couldn’t you have just left well enough alone?!” She suddenly screamed in rage, her wings flaring with her emotions.

Crystal was silenced when Fruity suddenly hugged her tightly and began to cry himself. “I’m so, so sorry Crystal. This is all my fault,” He said.” I shouldn’t have kept pressing buttons. I should have realised something wasn’t right with it.”

The pegasus zebra mare sighed, still looking distraught. “I’m even less than what I was before. Now I’m something entirely different. Just what am I?”

“The computer said something along the lines of a ‘compatible “Infiltrator” being detected’. I think it meant the type of robot you are,”

“Now I have even more questions.” Crystal sighed.

Fruity sat down beside her and wrapped a comforting wing around her. “I promise you, no, I Pinkie Promise that I’ll help you find out what happened to you and why you’ve been reborn like this,” Fruity said.

“A what?”

“A Pinkie Promise, it’s a promise you never ever break and keep forever,” Fruity said as he then began to chant. “Cross my heart, hope to fly, stick a cup-cake in my eye,” He said while at the same time performing the motions. The modified mare couldn’t help but crack a small smile at the odd display as she then leaned into him.

“Thank you,” She sighed.

A strong breeze picked up which blew past the two huddled ponies and they could have sworn they heard a feminine voice through the wind say “Forever”.

Author's Note:

Thank you for reading and I'm sorry it took so long. Real life and everything dulled my writing mood plus my work place moved from Failsworth in Manchester to Walton Summit in Preston which is a 40 minute drive down the motorway and for the first week there I was doing 12 hour shifts.

Anyway. With the release of Fallout 4 within hours of this chapter's release, FoE: Influx will be going onto an hiatus until after the new year. Do not threat, I WILL NOT abandon Influx. I have plenty more ideas and the story is far from over.

Also, Big thanks to Slouping for the generous illustration he did of Crystal and Fruity's first kiss.

This image is class of steam engine the "Dashing Pegasus" based off of. The locomotive in the photograph is the LNER A3 Class "Flying Scotsman"

Thank you again and please enjoy this image done by Geekladd.
This is the first image of Pegasus Zebra Crystal.

NEW!!


Crystal revised pegasis form by Geekladd.